A few years ago, there was a huge commotion about this book. Everywhere I went that sold or loaned books, there was a few prized copies displayed prominently on a shelf where everyone could see them. Chapters stores had tables dedicated to this book (and, it became a ‘Heather’s Pick’), local Costco’s had mounds of this books piled sky-high in their book section. Everyone talked about it; this book had really made quite a splash. To be honest, I am not even really sure why I am reviewing this book – you have probably read it already. And if you haven’t, why have you not read this book yet? My guess is that you are probably like me, late to get onto the popular book bandwagon, and that’s alright, there’s no shame here. I do it every single time a book gets popular. For example, the Hunger Games came out, what, in 2008? Didn’t read any of them until last year, didn’t even finish the series until the end of this summer. Percy Jackson? Came out in 2005/2006, I did not even look at them until a few years ago. And I know these are all children’s books and Young Adult examples (although the Hunger Games is much too violent in my opinion for any child), you probably get my point, because it is not only these books, but multiple others as well. My other problem is getting on the book bandwagon too early, reading books before they are popular, but that is a whole new can of worms that I do not intend on opening today. The Help was stunning. If you need to leave and want a quick summary of what I thought of the book, that is it right there. This book was stunning. It was good-stunning; it was bad-stunning (but not in a bad way); it was attention grabbing stunning; it took the whole wide range of stunning and packed it into a 522 page book, as though with no trouble at all.

So. Glad. I. Stopped. Reading. This. How's that for setting the tone for this review?Alright, I won't be so mean. I actually really loved (this part is no exaggeration) the first section in this book (it is divided into three or four sections, each called a book), and I enjoyed the first little bit of the second 'book'. But soon after, I started disliking this book, and eventually couldn't bring myself to finish this. I just couldn't. The book is basically about a girl named Grania, who is deaf, and her experiences in life before and during World War One. For the first bit, it is actually better than it sounds.

Have you ever read a book, where you want to say something about it, and you just can't figure out what to say? That is how I am about this book - so if how I feel about this book is blurry at first, please be patient while I babble my way out of this slightly confusing state!Personally, I am very interested in deafness (I am walking along the path to deafness myself), Deaf Culture, Deaf history, and d/Deaf people. Helen Keller was both deaf and blind - and I am very interested in how a person would live out their life like that - being blind might be difficult at first, but after a while, a person could probably adjust, and the idea of deafness does not really scare me. But being blind and deaf is something else altogether - I do not know if I could handle them both at the same time - I think that I would find it frightening. Helen Keller is both, which interests me greatly. I found myself looking for a book about Helen Keller, and this is what I found - a book from the perspective of the highly overlooked teacher of Helen Keller, the person who taught Helen everything she knew - Annie Sullivan, about her first month trying to, well, reach Helen Keller.

This book is like a bite of a history book that actually turned out to be interesting... and in this case, tasty, too. I never doubted that this book would be interesting, that is not what I mean. I just mean that this sends you straight back in history - and it's much better than a history book.This book is 'based on a true story' and so I'll admit that the prospect of reading it slightly worried and scared me. After all, doesn't it always seem that the book or movie that is based on a true story is horrifying, or extremely sad? And the thought that something even remotely similar had happened to someone is even worse. But I assure you - it is not horrifying, and I quite enjoyed it. Quite.

Authors

Jason and Elizabeth are brother and sister book addicts who somehow manage to get along (most of the time). They reside in Canada with their dog Becky, and one (slightly insane) fly-hunting cat named Fish. Oh. And their parents. They're important too.